1. Technical Field
The invention relates to customer relationship management. More particularly, the invention relates to enhancing the customer experience when the customer is using a multi-mode online or voice interaction solution.
2. Description of the Background Art
Currently, when customers of a company face any issues with respect to a service or a product, the customers tend to contact customer service representatives, hereinafter referred to as agents, of the company, either by phone, chat, or any other available media. The customers may also use a combination of existing media. For example, the customer may first try to solve the issue using a self service application or a social networking means and, if unsuccessful, then the customer can contact an agent using a suitable means, such as phone, chat, etc. and, finally, can visit a forum/social network to express an opinion regarding the response from the agent. The agents attempt to solve the issues by spending time to understand the customers' issues, offering appropriate solutions, and so on.
Further, when an agent talks to a customer, either on the phone or using a chat solution, the agent is generally not aware of most of the steps taken by the customer to resolve issues the customer faces, prior to the current conversation. So, the agent may repeat instructions and solutions, which may have already been tried by the customer. This results in wastage of time, resources and money, from both the customer's and the agent's side.
When a customer talks to an agent, either using chat, voice, or a combination of chat and voice, the agent tries to answer queries from the customer and resolve the customer's issues. However, resolving issues using a traditional interaction console is a time consuming affair due to various reasons, such as the agent handling multiple sessions at the same time on chat channel, slow response from the customer, inability of subject matter experts to help in more than one voice call, and so on. This reduces the efficiency of the agent. Also, an increase in the time taken to resolve the issues using chat may result in reluctance on the part of the customer to use chat for future issues.